Former IAB president Chris Williams has joined the Association of Canadian Advertisers as vice-president, digital.
It’s a new position for the not-for-profit association, created to help members address the troubling and well-documented challenges related to digital media, said Ron Lund, ACA president and CEO.
In most cases if a marketer spends $1 on traditional advertising, the vast majority of it goes to the publisher, but with digital it’s down around 40% as small percentages are redirected to trading desks, DSPs, exchanges and so on, said Lund. The system has a lot of problems right now and Williams’ mandate is to help ACA members navigate that system and protect their brands as much as possible.
Aside from multiple global studies revealing the sweeping scope of problems related to bot-fraud and transparency, ACA research showed its members were very concerned about it and the ACA’s board of directors, made up of senior level marketers from across the country, believed adding new digital expertise should be a top priority, said Lund.
Williams will get to work right away trying to produce a clearer picture of the Canadian digital ecosystem for the ACA while also providing more practical assistance to members including, for example, what kind of language should go into contracts with media partners.
Williams spent 2.5 years as president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada, leaving in November 2014. Since then, he worked as a consultant and as a senior advisor for the Federal Public Works and Government Services Department.
Williams has deep roots in Canadian digital advertising, helping to launch BBDO Interactive in 1994 and spending 11 years on the board of the IAB.
“Digital media is getting more complex,” said Williams. “Advertisers have more choices, more metrics and the challenges are highly-connected to each other. My job is to help simplify this for our members.”
